January 5, 2011

In even more fallout from the Village Voice’s “NYPD Tapes” series, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has now appointed a committee of three former federal prosecutors to investigate whether crime stats are being manipulated.

The move, reported by the Associated Press, appears to be the latest step by Kelly to try to blunt criticism of the accuracy of the crime stats that has followed last year’s Voice series, which exposed secret tape recordings of police supervisors in a Brooklyn precinct telling officers not to take crime reports.

In recent months, Kelly has transferred a precinct commander, charged him and four other supervisors with failing to take crime reports, transferred a deputy chief, and appointed a deputy inspector to reinvestigate manipulation of crime reports in Brooklyn’s 81st Precinct and elsewhere.

Kelly has also altered the way sex crimes are investigated, and increased the size of detective squads specifically trained to handle such cases.

Most recently, Kelly released statistics on lower level crimes after having withheld them from the public for more than eight years, again, to blunt criticism of the crime stats.

At the same time, Kelly has been able to hold onto control of investigations into his own department. So far, no oversight agencies located outside the department have stepped up to conduct an independent investigation of crime complaints in the NYPD.

In recent months, Kelly has transferred a precinct commander, charged him and four other supervisors with failing to take crime reports, transferred a deputy chief, and appointed a deputy inspector to reinvestigate manipulation of crime reports in Brooklyn’s 81st Precinct and elsewhere.

Kelly has also altered the way sex crimes are investigated, and increased the size of detective squads specifically trained to handle such cases.

Most recently, Kelly released statistics on lower level crimes after having withheld them from the public for more than eight years, again, to blunt criticism of the crime stats.

At the same time, Kelly has been able to hold onto control of investigations into his own department. So far, no oversight agencies located outside the department have stepped up to conduct an independent investigation of crime complaints in the NYPD.